The Höbel Lab – Anuran Behavioral EcologyPh.D. Gerlinde Höbel

We study the evolution of animal communication, in particular how the sound, color and tactile components that make up animal displays interact with each other to help – and sometimes hinder- successful communication.

We study these questions using frogs and insects, whose raucous choruses provide an ideal system in which to ask questions about different display types, and the social and environmental factors that facilitate their use.

Our research combines traditional techniques used to study animal communication (signal playbacks), methods used in the study of human speech perception and sophisticated methods for describing behavior (preference functions).